Centurion New Accounts

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There’s a discussion over at Flyertalk on this as well.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-express-membership-rewards/1005993-usa-centurion-now-invitation-only.html

“That,” concludes Phillips, “combined with his personal style and work ethic, makes Dr. Grover a natural choice for Visa Black Card.”

Features of the Visa Black Card include 24-hour concierge service, luxury gifts and an exclusive rewards program. The limited availability of the Black Card is designed to ensure the highest caliber of personal service for card members.

More information about the Visa Black card can be found on the Black Card website, including a link to the national television ad featuring Dr. Grover.Sanj

What do you consider a luxury or premium credit card?

A premium card would be anything that necessitates a particular financial situation to be approved. This can be total account relationship (Dollar Account) with a bank, level of income, total spend, etc.

Obviously for anything to be premium or luxury it must also contain additional benefits that are out of the ordinary for other credit cards of that type or by that issuer.

What luxury credit cards do you currently use?

• AMEX Centurion
• AMEX Platinum
• Visa Signature
• MasterCard World

Which card is your favorite?

Tough call

• As luxury and premium goes, the AMEX Centurion beats any other card hands down.
• Value for Money, I would suggest AMEX Platinum, as it gives many of the benefits (Such as a premium protection, concierge, lounge access, etc) For a relatively affordable price. Simply joining one of the airlines’ lounge programs already is the price of the AMEX Platinum – and anyone who qualifies for it would be ill-advised to join an airline lounge for that reason alone.

Why do you find best about the card?

Number one has to be the reciprocal arrangements with airlines and hotels to provide elite status in their programs.

Second place is the personal service (no waiting on hold, or being allocated random administrators overseas) and personal concierge.

Third place is the occasional bonus and promotional offers with co-marketing partners such as freebies from stores, hotels, and high-end brands.

I would not count the “recognition” of a black card as a benefit. Your own attitude and personal-skills do more than a piece of metal clanging arrogantly on a counter.

What are benefits do you find are best (points, miles, gifts, privileged access to events, etc)?

Points and miles are surely a benefit, though I haven’t used nearly as much as I earn. I have hundreds of thousands of points in all kinds of programs and earn them quicker than I can (or want to) use them.

Privileged access to events is a very nice benefit – Although in the current economy these events have been significantly scaled down in quantity and quality. Marketing-partners simply aren’t as active in wooing what are perceived to be “Elite potential clients.”

Who do you think has generally the best points program?

The best points program is AMEX in general, and the SPG AMEX in particular.

Why?

Every dollar charged is at least one point. One point is transferable to a wide range of airlines at a rate of 1.25 miles per points, which means that a business class ticket to europe can be had for no more than 80k points.

Also, the redemption rates with Starwood brand hotels are second to none, as long as you accumulate 1 point per dollar, which is only available on that card. Stays at their hotels earn much more.

How about rewards and trips program?

Not sure of the difference.

How do some of the luxury credit card concierge programs stack up eg. Virtuouso vs Centurion (Circle Associates)?

Circles is normally mentioned as being a superior company. I can’t comment more accurately regarding Virtuoso as I haven’t recently used them.

I can say that VIP desk (Which is that Visa Black uses) is traditionally trashed as being very inferior to all other concierge outfits. Again, this is based on hundreds of other personal-accounts rather than my own. I wouldn’t be daft enough to get a Visa Black myself.

What are your thoughts on the various programs eg. Visa Signature vs MasterCard World Elite vs American Express Centurion?

Here it is really applies to oranges.

The apple is AMEX Centurion

The oranges are Visa Signature and MC World / World Elite.

The former has a particularly high annual fee, as well as an even higher application fee and restrictive qualification criteria. The later are usually available for free, if you qualify.

MC World Elite, to my knowledge is only currently offered through two partners: Saks and Ameriprise.  Although this is marketed as the most premium product offered by MC, its benefits are much more thin than the AMEX centurion (or even platinum):

• No airline elite nor lounge partners (a priority pass card is offered, which costs $27 per guest per visit, after the first few “introductory” uses – AMEX is free and totally unlimited).
• Very thin hotel partners (800 worldwide in total) with less benefits than the usual AMEX fine hotels and resorts program available to platinum members for free as well.  In order to receive “an additional amenity” at the hotels, you must book and pay for a suite (with AMEX you can book any room you like, as basic as possible).
• Ridiculous car rental “elite” privileges: namely “free membership in emerald club” from national.  Nothing else.  Anyone can join emerald club for free without being “special” at all.

Since AMEX controls both sides, bank and card, do you find they have an advantage?

Arguable about what you would consider controlling both sides. Very few people “bank” with AMEX (their bank is called centurion bank – no connection to the black card) and AMEX also is offered (under license) by most unaffiliated banks.

If you refer to those cards issued directly from and managed by AMEX – then they may even have a disadvantage since almost nobody has an actual banking relationship with them.  Therefore, you hear more nightmare stories about credit limits, declines, and cancellations from them – as they cannot gauge a complete profile of a customer, not having access to their bank balance information, earning and direct deposits, and other relationship history.  When was the last time you met an account manager at AMEX?  Now when was the last time you met a manager at your own bank (which issues all types of credit cards)?

What benefit would you love for American Express to bring back to the Centurion card (Everyone typically wants SPG Platinum)?

Yes, everyone typically laments the loss of SPG Platinum.  People forget the loss of Hyatt Diamond as well.

Currently, the only “Elite Membership” offered is Gold SPG, Gold Hilton, and Platinum Holiday Inn = all of those can be obtained for free, with zero hotel stays, simply by having and using their own co-branded credit cards.

I would love for AMEX to bring back any type of hotel elite status that actually cannot just be obtained for free with no stays at all – otherwise the hotel chain doesn’t really treat you as a particular VIP since there are so many thousands of these Gold status members floating around who aren’t even loyal at all to the hotel chain.
SPG Platinum is one; Hyatt Diamond is another, Intercontinental Royal Ambassador is another.

Also – bring in at least one airline partner with a top level elite tier.  No need to have several mid-tier partners within the same alliance (like Delta and Continental) and none in another (like Oneworld).  Delta now has 4 tiers, and Centurion (so far) only gives you the 2nd level up, not even the 3rd…

Do you think AMEX should raise the requirements beyond 250k?

The “requirements” have been diluted by allowing business spend to count towards the threshold.  Three or four years ago, there were only 14,000 members; today there are 27,000 and rising.  The introduction of the $5,000 initiation fee prevented that from being 50,000 or more, but currently you can obtain a centurion simply as an employee of a company which has very mediocre monthly expenses paid on a business card.  How many new cardholders have declined such freebies as $500 towards a purchase of $1000 or more in a retail partner – since they would never afford to even spend the extra $500 there?

There are 20 something year old kids who play PayPal games (of charging their AMEX card to pay themselves back) just to get a centurion card, or who charge the monthly advertising expenses for the company they work for (as a simple midlevel project coordinator) and get a black card?  It’s becoming diluted somewhat – which, in my opinion, prevents AMEX from offering better elite benefits or removing old ones.

One idea would be to leave the 250k as it is, but only for personal cards.  Business cards should be 500k.  And you cannot switch between a business and a personal.

Would you pay more annual fees for some really awesome benefits (I think we all might)?

Very very hard to say.  I believe that almost nobody takes advantage of every single one of the benefits that centurion offers.  If you did, you would qualify for elite status independently.

In that case, to raise the fees would alienate the existing ranks, who are the original vip customers to begin with.  We would all like to see awesome benefits, but not to pay more than $2,500 which in this economy is excessive to begin with.

A solution would be to offer new, really “awesome” benefits but you select which ones you want.  For example, the highest tier airline status offered in a choice of 4 partners – of which you choose 1 and 2nd tier in 2 more.  That way AMEX keeps their expenses to a reasonable level, members get higher benefits in items which help them, and people don’t end up paying for what they don’t need.

Which banks do you think offer the best programs?

Bank of America, Citibank, Chase and Wells Fargo all have attractive programs for private banking customers – which are their elite/premium accounts.  They are each good for their own.

Do you have a great experience where a luxury card has really made a difference?

A week before Christmas, I tried booking a table at a Manhattan restaurant for that same evening but was told that they were booked with holiday reservations until the end of December.  The restaurant was not a participant in any special AMEX or visa signature “hot tables” program, so I did not think to waste time booking through a concierge.

I spoke to the manager, explained that I was a good customer, and did not want a large table or group reservation – just 2 couples.  Nothing could be done to “squeeze me in” that day, nor even later that week.

One call to Centurion, asking for help to find any available time that evening or even for the rest of the week – and the concierge asked “can I place you on hold while I check with the restaurant?”.
60 seconds later, the concierge comes back on the line and says “what time and day do you want a booking for 4?  Pick what you like”.  I said “I would love today in 2 hours – but I will take anything at all they can squeeze in, at any time”.  Another 60 seconds on hold and I am told “everything is set for today in 2 hours, is there anything else i can help you with?”.

Amazingly, when i arrived at the restaurant, there was a line out the door, people were waiting more than 30 minutes for their pre-reserved tables to be available.  One person was even arguing about the fact that there seemed to be a clean table in the center which was empty – they were told “it is not a table in use today”.  I then asked about my own party of 4 and that i also had a reservation, and was told “it will be a bit of a wait, we are very busy today, can i have your name?”  one glance at the list, and “right this way sir” to that elusive empty table (much to the annoyed, or impressed, glances of the other waiting people)…

I still have no idea what the concierge said, or to whom it was said – but I was thoroughly impressed.

I’m sure you have a few bad experiences to share?

Yes there are, and some are better left unshared…

The net of it is that the American Express vs Visa/MasterCard debate has remained the same since the 1990s.

• American Express notes that their cardmembers spend on average 3.5x more than Visa and 4.5x more than MasterCard cardholders.
• Visa and MasterCard tout their worldwide and in the US acceptance at 8 million locations, vs 4.6 million American Express.

Kenneth Chenault noted ““Despite all the claims by Visa and MasterCard about success in the affluent segment, where it really counts — in the results — they haven’t moved the dial at all.”

The new Chase Sapphire Preferred Includes (in addition to standard benefits):

• 25% Travel Bonus (Points are worth 25% more when booking travel)
• Annual Point Bonus (10,000 point bonus for spend exceeding 50,000)
• 1:1 Point Transfer to Airline/Hotel Programs
• Enhanced Identity Protection (Additional 2k insurance coverage 5k total coverage)
• No fee first year, $95/year thereafter (Chase Sapphire non preferred has no annual fee)
• http://www.chasesapphire.com/

Chase Sapphire Includes:

• Ultimate Rewards Points Program (1:1 dollar/point accumulation)
• Double Points on Airfare via Chase Travel Booking Tool
• Retail Gift Cards Starting at 2,500 points
• No Blackout Dates or Travel Restrictions, Most Major Airlines
• Pay with Points or Credit or Both
• Trip Cancellation Insurance
• Sapphire Preferred Exclusive Experiences (VIP Passes to American Idol, Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Fashion Week, etc).
• Zagat Review Access for Restaurant Reviews
• Exchange Points for Cash
• Chase Global LifeLine (Emergency Travel Assistance, Card Replacement, Medical Assistance, etc).
• 24/7 Concierge
• Online Account Management
• Travel Accident Insurance
• Travel & Baggage Delay Insurance
• Lost Luggage Insurance
• Roadside Dispatch (Referral towing/locksmith services)
• Auto Rental Collision Damage Coverage
• Identity Protection (Insurance, 3 months of monitoring services, protection from unauthorized purchases)
• Purchase/Return Protection (90 day replacement)
• Extended Warranty Protection (up to 1 year)

Visa Signature Status includes benefits such as:

• No pre-set spending limit
• Sports tickets and special access
• VIP access to Film Screenings, Movies, Broadway Shows
• Travel savings and upgrades at some of the world’s finest resorts and spas.
• Fine Wine and Food including free Zagat survey access, and invitation only experiences.

Anyone have more detail on this? Guess we will find out this week on 8/1. Still $250,000, for now.

In the show pilot, the writers wasted no time on black card references, the son of the heir to family that invented the blender (Tucker Bryant) wrecks his Dad’s Ferrari and is injured. After some emergency care, Tucker needs transport to a hospital, “[Tucker Bryant] The Hamptons heritage no way man, Dad calls it the local cemetery. [Hank Lawson] What would your Dad suggest we do? [Tucker Bryant] Go into my wallet and get the little black card that says American Express on it.” Tucker is then taken by helicopter to Mount Sinai in Manhattan. You can watch the full pilot for Royal Pains on Hulu

In the UK, the card is advertised by spokespersons such as Bono, Gisele Bündchen and Elle Macpherson.

Red American Express is mentioned in the 2007 song “The Way I Are” by Timbaland ft. Keri Hilson.

AS OF OCTOBER 2009 AMERICAN EXPRESS HAS MADE THE CENTURION CARD INVITATION ONLY, THIS INFORMATION IS NOW INVALID.

Many rumors and poor facts exist on Centurion Card Requirements, but it is really this:

• Have a good credit score and history (necessary for Platinum Card Also)
• Have been an existing American Express Platinum cardholder for a minimum of 1 year
• Spend $250,000 USD on American Express Personal Cards within a rolling 12-month period

Note:

• The Centurion Card as well as the Platinum Card are no longer “invitation only“

The Centurion Card has a credit limit based on personal finance profile (assets, spending habits, etc)

From WSJ: Suppose, for example, on a 3-o’clock-in-the-morning whim, you decided to book a round-the-world trip; American Express would accommodate you with a travel service staffed 24 hours a day. In the market for a red 1965 Ferrari? If you were a black-card holder, American Express would kick tires in the world’s fanciest used-car lots. If you remembered in Singapore that you had left your favorite suit in a Hong Kong penthouse, the company would arrange to fetch it. (full 1988 WSJ Black Card Article Here)

On October 14, 1999, publicly launched the American Express Centurion Card aka The Black Card, see original press release here. Doug Smith, director of American Express Europe said:”There had been rumors going around that we had this ultra-exclusive black card for elite customers… It wasn’t true, but we decided to capitalize on the idea anyway. So far we’ve had a customer buy a Bentley and another charter a jet.”

In 2004 in Europe and 2006 in the US the Centurion Card was switched over to Titanium from Plastic.

In 2006 American Express also raised the eligibility requirement from 150,000 annual spend to 250,000 annual spend.

American Express filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Los Angeles alleging that Courtney owes $352,059.67 that includes unpaid balances ($279,079.68 on a Centurion Card, $69,245.56 on a Gold Card and $3,734.43 on a Platinum Card), attorney fees, and late charges. American Express suspended her charging privileges after she both failed and refuse to make payments.

Courtney Love’s publicist had no information as of Wednesday regarding the suit, but had left a message for Love’s attorney. Courtney was also sued for libel in February for comments she made regarding a fashion designer on Twitter; And just last year Courtney was sued for one million by an advisory firm seeking it’s share of proceeds from sale of Nirvana’s publishing catalog.

Myspace and Twitter, Courtney Love is definitely in touch with the times, even at the age of 44.

To refresh you, I’ve included the definition for disambiguate -

dis-am-big-u-ate / Pronunciation [dis-am-big-yoo-eyt]
–verb (used with object), -at-ed, -at-ing.
to remove the ambiguity from; make unambiguous: In order to disambiguate the sentence “She lectured on the famous passenger ship,” you’ll have to write either “lectured on board” or “lectured about.”

Black card (disambiguation)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The term black card could refer to:
* American Express’s Centurion Card wikipedia page here
* Barclays’s Black Card VISA credit card (no wikipedia page, the editors nixed it)
* the black penalty card issued for serious misconduct in the sport of fencing

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

]]> http://www.luxuryplastic.com/wikipedias-black-card-disambiguation/feed/ 0 http://www.luxuryplastic.com/wikipedias-black-card-disambiguation/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LuxuryPlastic/~3/-Oyk8jZyyN0/ http://www.luxuryplastic.com/black-is-the-new-platinum/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 03:30:50 +0000 blackcard http://www.luxuryplastic.com/black-is-the-new-platinum/ Back in early 2000s, the number of “platinum” credit cards had doubled in a short period, reaching 100 million total since the late 1990s according to the Nilson Report (www.nilsonreport.com). The end result for Platinum credit cards? They still exist but if you think about it, they have no real meaning anymore, at least not culturally. To make it now there are “titanium cards” that aren’t actually titanium, rather “titanium colored plastic.”

Brilliance in marketing maybe, but the same fate will likely come to fruition for the Black Cards that are out there today. The more that exists on what the card actually is, the more common consumers will confuse what a Black Card actually is, with meaningless black cards such as “secured black cards” that are far from elite, or even worse (black card kits), and eventually, it will all mean nothing, least so far as status is concerned.

There have been stories of people:

• Complaining to the FDIC (One Investment Banker in CT)
• Phone calls, letters, and pleas to American Express from Cardmembers that they promise they will “never use it”
• Setup of a website to build support
• Pooling family members and friends together in attempts to reach the spending requirements

There are some that will shrug it off and say $2500 a year, that’s crazy, the fees are too high, I’ll stick with Platinum. An AMEX spokesperson once said, “The card is absolutely not for everyone,” she added “It’s open to a select group for that reason. If you don’t find value in the benefits and services, then it’s probably not right for you.”

That means, “If you have to ask…”

Below is the music video for “Kiss My Black AMEX”, you can go here if you want to buy their Black AMEX T-shirts

The Lyrics for Draft’s “Kiss My Black AMEX.” are as follows:

Uh ... Draft ... Freak

[Chorus]

It ain't about this it ain't about that it's about a check

If you don't like then

Kiss my black Amex

It's time time to settle the debts people place your bets

If you don't like then

Kiss my black Amex

I got a buck pucker up and

Kiss my black Amex

Shawty knows what's up and

Kiss my black Amex

It's all about a dollar

Kiss my black Amex

So let me hear you holla

Kiss my black Amex

[Draft]

I got mad bucks I hit the stash up and spend that cash up

And use my new black Amex card for backup

Ain't no need to stack up I just hit Saks up

and treat it like a pool table and rack up

This is how it go: Put the merchandise on the counter

then slap the black card down like a domino

Just ask Ben and Big Mo

walking a day in my shoes is like slippin and fallin in a pot of gold

The money I make is just plain irate

if I don't rap no more from this dayforward I'm straight

I can get me a G5, a Land Rov, a Bentley

and that's just all off one day

Vintage '87 I hit the reverend charge

all my blessings and pay my way to heaven

A hundred million spent with nothing to show for it

I can run through money but I can never run out of it

[Chorus]

[Draft]

Check it out

C & P jeans fresh fetus tee custom sneaks I'm dressed to a T

White socks fitted F Record pendant Carnivo sippin Cuban cigar clippin

Crib in the Hamptons loft in the city '08 Iconic Claudio himself sent me

You should see how many women it gets me

somewhere between a whole lot and too many

With the black Amex I don't have a price range

I tried to buy the world but they didn't have enough change

At the United Center sittin next to dame

last time I did that they almost put me in the game

It's a shame cause my main chick can even get charged

but shawty it ain't nothin to buy me a new broad

So if you wanna act like a retard kiss my black Amex card

[Chorus]

[Draft]

It's Draft ... F Records baby ... Yeah ... Freaky crazy for this one

F Records – Draft’s MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/frecordsonline

ivehad my fair share of fights with artists, i mean Kathleen :Black Card” Horowitz OOPS did i tell a big secret? you mean ypou didmnt KNPW she had a HUGE bunch of property? a Centurion card and summers in the Hamptons? oops…well lets just pretend shes Julie ruin

Courtney and Kathleen’s feud started at Lollapalooza 1995 when Courtney attacked Kathleen (aka Julie Ruin) for being friends with bandmate Tobi Vail, who at one point had a relationship with Kurt Cobain?

American Express usually wants celebrities running around with their cards, but I wonder if this is a special case where AMEX denied Courtney a Black Card for being a Celebrity, I mean crazy. She seems a little salty about the card, doesn’t she?